A proud unapologetic Black trans woman speaking truth to power and discussing the world around her since 2006

Friday, July 25, 2014

Calling Out The US Conference Of Catholic Bishops Transphobia

TransGriot Note: Another guest post from Fallon Fox. She had a lot to say about the US Conference of Catholic Bishops letting their transphobia flow while hating on President Obama's recent TBLG rights protective executive orders.

"The executive order prohibits “gender identity” discrimination, a prohibition that is previously unknown at the federal level, and that is predicated on the false idea that “gender” is nothing more than a social construct or psychological reality that can be chosen at variance from one’s biological sex.".

Thus saith the willfully ignorant (A.K.A. - stupid as hell ) United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. What they are saying is that they are butt hurt over their slipping grip on discrimination of transgender people.

"In the name of forbidding discrimination, this order implements discrimination.", they say. I could have sworn that we have a separation of church and state. A simple Wikipedia search, or fifth grade text book, could easily inform the USCCB of the contents of the US Constitution.

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances. What's messed up is that they willfully recognize that what they want is discrimination.

The USCCB says, "The executive order prohibits “gender identity” discrimination, a prohibition that is previously unknown at the federal level..." and, "With the stroke of a pen, it lends the economic power of the federal government to a deeply flawed understanding of human sexuality, to which faithful Catholics and many other people of faith will not assent. As a result, the order will exclude federal contractors precisely on the basis of their religious beliefs."

So, basically what they are saying is that they recognize their particular brand of Catholicism is discriminatory against a certain minority group. They admit that and their religion demands that discrimination.

I am in no way religious. But, if I were to feel froggy enough to dabble in a belief system that ignores the peer reviewed evidence of scientist and doctors, because I felt that I needed to hold on to something for whatever reason, I certainly wouldn't pick the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops brand of Catholicism. Because, that would be an asshole-ish thing to do to other human beings, no? Subscribe to a religious view that seeks to implement, or keep in place, hateful governmental policies in order to bolster the belief system that makes me comfortable as a navigate my way in this world? All of these restraints on fellow humans lives in minority groups, and supposed self defined 'government protections' for myself, when I would have absolutely positively not one single solitary shed of evidence for the religion I am basing all of this discrimination on.

It only took a second for the words "What kind of insanity is this?" to fly out of my mouth and for my fist to slam my desk when I read the USCCB website today. See, there is clear scientific peer reviewed evidence that transgender women have differences in their brains than cisgender males. That is a fact. One can argue if it is a matter of nature, nurture, or a combination of the two before toddler age or such that leads to the neurological configuration of transgender women's brains. But, what they have found is that transgender women's neurology is different. There is no denying that even for the USCCB. The scientific and medical communities know this and the government knows this.

On the flip side, when science attempts to find evidence for a god, neither the scientific, medical, or governmental entities can find absolutely no concrete evidence that points to the god of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, or any other god that has been written into religious text. And if any scientist, doctor, or politician were to ever find such evidence, they would be the most popular person on planet Earth. The Vatican would love to see such hard evidence of their claims pushed to the forefront. It would be a worldwide game changer. It would most certainly cause enough of a stir to cover up the child molestation problem that is rampant within their institution. Yet, silence abounds in the halls of hard scientific evidence when questions of God are concerned.

Now, I'm not here to preach to you that there is or is not a god. That's just not my thing. I personally have no religious belief. But, as long as a religion doesn't try to harm anyone, or hinder someone else's life, it's not really an issue for me. I'll say again for those who are sensitive about the issue of religion. As long as religion doesn't seek to put roadblocks in the way of my well being and freedoms that all humans should have, then I'm pretty much live and let live in that regards. That's pretty much the mindset of most non believers. But, let's think about what's going on here in this particular situation with the USCCB and transgender rights. Because this is where a conflict can and does arise constantly when some (but not all) religions try to impose their belief system on others lives.

It's well known within medicine and science that transgender women are women in their brains regardless of surgeries or hormone replacement therapy. There is clear evidence of this fact. On the flip side, there is zero scientific evidence of the god of the USCCB. Yet, we don't hear transgender atheist complaining about sharing restrooms with members of the USCCB. We don't even hear transgender Catholics complaining about sharing restrooms with members of the USCCB. As a matter of fact, I haven't heard of any group complaining or suggesting that members of the USCCB be segregated from male restrooms. One would think that would be an issue that someone should bring up. Given the documented rapes by Catholic priests time and time again on young boys, everyone knows that Catholics have a problem in this area. Yet, transgender folks, and most rational people, realize that Catholic rape tends to happen often, you can't paint one entire group of people with one broad brush and be hyper paranoid about sharing spaces like restrooms with them.

Let's flip that coin again. You will rarely, if ever, find transgender women molesting children or raping anybody in a restroom. Not that it could not happen. There are crazies in every group I am sure. But, it's just not a reoccurring thing, and it is not pervasive by any stretch of the imagination. I've never heard of a transgender person in a restroom raping anyone ever in my life. You don't hear about repeated cases of rapes dished out by transgender women. And transgender women have been using women's restrooms since restrooms were invented. No, it's actually the opposite way round. You actually find repeated cases of transgender women raped by the hands of others. That has also been happening since the invention of the restroom.

One thing for certain is this. If transgender women, or any other group were to even hint at the possibly, if they were even to whisper the idea that Catholics should be banned from restrooms because - well, you know - some Catholics are known for raping kids, Catholics would have a fit. They would no doubt scream, "This is hateful discrimination! Not all Catholics rape kids!" from the mountain tops. And they would have good reason to, as that would certainly be hateful discrimination based on the evil deeds of a few.

What would happen if transgender women who were not Catholic said this? "Prohibiting 'religious discrimination', a prohibition that should be known at the federal level, and that is predicated on the false idea that the "USCCG's god" is a real being that interacts with humans on earth - is wrong. We need to have religious discrimination! Their lifestyle and desires conflict with our own. We actually feel quite uncomfortable sharing restrooms with Catholics. So, we would like 'religious discrimination' implemented in the case of Catholic restroom usage. We don't mind if Catholics use the restroom of course. We know they need to go potty when they need to. We just don't want them doing it anywhere near us. We propose a restroom separated from non-Catholics for those special Catholic needs. The restrooms we have in mind are clearly marked with a lower cased "t" so that they will be easily recognizable by Catholic restroom usage. Look how merciful we are! We even propose a place for Catholics to go number one and two! Just keep them far far way from us please."

The above scenario would never happen. Every secularly minded non believer that I know of has no problem simply sharing a restroom with someone of a different belief system as themselves, or disagrees with them on an issue. It's just not a thing that is rampant among rational empathetic humans. If a non-believer were to hold such a hateful bigoted position and paint every single believer with such a broad brush they would be wrong. And this progressive atheist transgender lesbian would go to task in fighting them on that harmful suggestion. I don't have to though, because as I said, it doesn't happen. Yet, the USCCB, and some other far right religious institutions are drunk with unnecessary irrational fears of their fellow humans.

Fortunately, there are more empathetic and progressive Catholics and Christians on this planet that I can respect. And even though we may disagree on the concept of a divine creator, we realize that we can judge each individual on an individual basis. We don't have to unnecessarily fear or judge whole minority groups, or each other for the acts of a few individuals. We can respect each other, live in peace, and be friends actually.

Fortunately, the younger generation is more understanding than their elders and won't stand for their elders insensitivity in the long run and most certainly will throw the bums out in the future. And that my friends gives me much hope for humanity.

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About The TransGriot

Monica Roberts, AKA the TransGriot (Gree-oh) is a native Houstonian, GLAAD award nominated blogger, writer, and award winning trans human rights advocate. She's the founding editor of TransGriot, and her writing has appeared at the Bilerico Project, Ebony.com, The Huffington Post and the Advocate.
She works to foster understanding and acceptance of trans people inside and outside communities of color and was recently honored with the Virginia Prince Transgender Pioneer Award

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The TransGriot blog's mission is to become the griot of our community. I will introduce you to and talk about your African descended trans brothers and trans sisters across the Diaspora, reclaim and document our chocolate flavored trans history, speak truth to power, comment on the things that impact our trans community from an Afrocentric perspective and enlighten you about the general things that go on around me and in the communities that I am a member of.

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